Daniel Rowe is the acting Director of the Rothermere American Institute for the 2026-27 Academic Year during Adam Smith's sabbatical.
In his capacity as Director of Academic Programmes, he is responsible for developing the RAI’s academic programming, coordinating the RAI-Kinder Institute study abroad programme, and overseeing visiting fellows.
Daniel is a historian of the twentieth-century United States and the wider world, with particular interests in political, economic, urban, and labour history. His forthcoming book, State of Development: Crisis, Competitiveness, and American Capitalism in the Neoliberal Age (Columbia University Press), examines the overlapping industrial and financial crises of the late 1970s and early 1980s. By focusing on policies enacted at the subnational and sectoral levels and examining the modern conservative movement from the outside in, the book highlights the important—but largely overlooked—role of the state in creating and shaping markets, restricting trade, and preventing corporate and municipal failures during a period of ascendant economic and racial nationalism.
He has published articles on US politics in the 1980s, state–market relations, and 1960s liberalism. His next research project will examine the social history of several iconic ‘Rust Belt’ cities during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Tentatively titled Educated Gambling: Casinos, Universities, and the Post-industrial Transformation of American Manufacturing Cities, the project will investigate how the expansion of casinos and universities transformed these cities and affected their residents.
Daniel previously taught at Birkbeck, University of London, the University of Warwick, and the University of Sheffield. In Oxford, he teaches US history and politics at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Selected Publications
- ‘Local and Regional Countercurrents: Reagan Democrats and the Politics of the “Rustbelt”’, in Jon K. Lauck and Catherine McNicol Stock (eds), The Conservative Heartland: A Political History of the Postwar American Midwest (University of Kansas Press, 2020).
- ‘The Politics of Protest: Daniel Patrick Moynihan and the Vocal Minority, 1967-1974,’ PS: Political Science and Politics, April 2017.
- Co-author, ‘Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s America: The Legacy of a Professor-Politician,’ introduction to a curated article collection for PS: Political Science and Politics, April 2017.
